


Two's A Company, Three's A Crowd, Four's A Mishap

by orphan_account



Category: Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball, ダイヤのA | Daiya no A | Ace of Diamond, 弱虫ペダル | Yowamushi Pedal
Genre: Crossover, Kagami's POV, M/M, and a few crossover pair hints, forgive me for this, kind of crack, with cameos here and there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 05:18:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7702237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, it's better to have a company to celebrate your birthday rather than being alone. But it’s better not to involve your three roommates and their respective high school sports club teammates into the circle.<br/>Kagami wished he hadn’t moved in with those three people if only he knew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two's A Company, Three's A Crowd, Four's A Mishap

That feeling when you realized about getting older as time passed isn't always pleasant.

I hadn't been living alone for almost a year, but it wasn't like I preferred to have a company than to be with my own. Sure, it was nice to spend some time with people to do things or talk about stuff, especially sports. Not to mention, how could you refuse a helping hand? Though, I didn't actually live with fellow basketball players, so I got some perspective advantages and it was good to know some things besides dribbling or shooting to rings in court. Then again, when you have pros, automatically cons will follow—the problem here is, sometimes, the amount of disadvantages of living underneath the same roof with three other sportsmen was larger than that of the benefits.

When people heard of us, they usually responded to it in excitement or jealousy. I always got the cliché, "Are you kidding? That's awesome!", "I would live there forever if I were you!", "It's like living the dream!", and other similar shits like that. Yeah, they wished they had known how it felt like to bear the condition of living with three dysfunctional guys who could get out of control once you pushed the right buttons at the wrong time. They would be expecting an abrasive storm, fantasy and nightmare colliding—once you go in, you can never escape.

This was one of the reasons why I shouldn't have trusted that advertisement when I decided to leave out my old place to live with four people.

I got home after spending a long day outside. When I arrived in front of the door, I was welcomed with blinking neon lights and thumping beats of electronic music from the turntables. The place was replete with more than twenty people, suffocating me as I struggled to get in. Some of them who knew me immediately grabbed my hand and shook them violently or gave me a hard smack on the back as they all said "Happy birthday!" while I could only nod and kept telling them my gratitude. All I could hear from the people were shouts, swears, loud chatters or other indistinct noises—it was like an American frat party at the Fourth of July.

Of course, there could only be one person who was responsible for all the chaos.

It was just a sheer coincidence when we found out that one big similarity between us--we did sports in high school and we were insanely good at it. We always had these talks, you know, about introducing our old teammates and wondered whether our friends have already known each other in some way. There was this crazy idea: a moment where we could gather all of our former teammates into one big rave of hot mess. I don't know if the ladies would dig that if it happened, but still, that was never a brilliant idea in my opinion. 

Until this finally happened, right at my own birthday. 

I might have been thinking, the goddess of fortune sent this scheming smug bastard to test my luck and forbearance in dealing with people like him—maybe I shouldn't have been too proud claiming that my life was for eating, sleeping, breathing, and basketball. I have faced so many irritating people and pricks throughout my life (this includes the Generation of Miracles themselves), but so far this guy, indeed, is one hell of a fucking cactus.

Karma was truly a bitch.

"Kagami! Where have you been, man?"

Speak of the devil.

When he summoned my name, I turned to him and my mouth was agape. Wearing his prideful but disheveled baseball uniform with a pair of one of his limited edition sunglasses collection, he ambled towards my direction with his signature cheeky grin. He seemed to look fine even though someone just broke one of the vases in the living room because of a target pitch dare. At this point, I wish I could berate him and have him beaten to pulp right after he managed to stop the insane whimsical festivity and get these erratic lunatics out of the apartment at that instant…

"MIYUKI, WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE?!"

… only if he hadn't brought a tiger in a leash.

"Happy birthday, my man!" he congratulated me, much to my dismay. "I would like you to meet your twin, Taiga #2! Apparently, Kuroko's no longer the only one having Nigou as a pet now since you've got your own!"

(Remember when I told you about the person who dragged me and two other people down to this horrendous storm filled with nutcases?)

Ladies and gentlemen—meet Miyuki Kazuya, Seidou High's formerly renowned miraculous catcher.

"How in the world did you get a tiger and why the hell did you bring it into our house?! Get it away from here!" I yelled in chagrin, to which he snickered in a mischievous fashion. He said, "Whoa, whoa, slow down. I got him from somebody—you might know them very well, perhaps. It wasn’t easy to get him, you know, but he’s actually a pretty nice guy. You should be glad that at least I didn't get you a dog, although I would love to get myself a Siberian husky someday. Come on, pet him!"

Absolutely fucking not.

"I'll pass."

The tiger stared at me sharply after I adamantly stated that. It growled deeply as it showed his teeth to me whilst giving me a threatening look. I chose to look away and not making an eye contact with that vicious beast. Seeing this, Miyuki made a pouted face that turned my stomach—he’s always that pretentious. "Don't be so mean to Taiga or he'll bite you. He's just like you, you know," he pretended to sulk, and then he caressed the tiger's head and talked to it playfully as if it were a cat sized twice smaller. "I'll show you around to everyone later, okay? You're supposed to be the star of the show tonight, not the birthday boy."

Sometimes, I wish I could just take a jetpack and fly myself away to the moon.

"God, Miyuki. And why in the world did you bring everyone here?" I sighed, trying to sound less exasperated. "What is this, The Social Network?"

"I thought you would like it! That means I nailed it, right?" he flashed a satisfied grin. "I want to throw you the best party you could ever imagine, so I looked up for some references. And I go miles beyond normal, I'm telling you! Plus, thanks to Kageyama and Imaizumi, the company has become a crowd and everyone is so excited! Sadly I haven’t gotten to install your ice statue immediately; I hope they will arrive here soon."

I bet he traced their contacts without letting them know that everyone is going to be here.

"Look, Miyuki, I—"

"Just enjoy the party, okay?" he assured me as he gave a wink, to which I rolled my eyes in disgust. Suddenly, he shouted to everyone in the room as I nearly spat, "Hey, guys! Let's raise a toast to the birthday boy! Cheers!"

Everyone immediately grabbed a glass near them and shouted ‘Cheers!' in unison before they did a loud battle cry and continue whatever they were doing. I couldn't help but sourly smiled and began to sweep my eyes throughout my surroundings as Miyuki left, bringing the tiger which followed right behind him and snuggled to his side like a kitten (I was getting chills by the sight—he could be so strangely scary sometimes).

Apparently, not only some of the Seirin and the crazy Generation of Miracles were invited, but Seidou, Karasuno, and Sohoku as well. There were some things that I wasn’t able to process at that time being: first, I couldn’t believe that this place could contain so many people all at once. Second, how did Miyuki manage to invite three sports teams just to celebrate my birthday, even if they barely knew who I am? Did he tell them that he held an open party with free drinks and games? To this date, I have no idea.

In the other side of the room, I could see Kuramochi and Tanaka struggled to KO each other as they relentlessly punched and kicked their opponents on the large table while the audiences cheered from below. Out of nowhere, Sawamura's loud yell of frustration was heard because he lost to Onoda over a flip cup game. The captain and Seidou’s captain were having an eagerly anticipated arm-wrestling match (or maybe was it a death-glaring contest? Ah, I’m not the one who was in the middle of the crowd, anyway). Then, someone barged harshly through the door and panted heavily before somebody else announced the time shown in the stopwatch.

"15 minutes and 22 seconds!"

"DAMN IT!"

In front of the door, that arrogant shithead Aomine just arrived after he had been running along with Naruko-whatsitsname, who gave him a scornful look. Being a proud asshole as he usually was, he stated haughtily in front of him, "See, you can never beat me in matters of speed. I don't care if you were a cyclist or a baseball player; the only one who can beat me is me. Beat it, loser, I'm the winner of this challenge—your light is obviously too dim to outshine me."

"You think I would lose to some piece of shit like you?!" The redhead screamed on the top of his lungs. "I, Naruko Shoukichi, am the fucking Speed Man of Naniwa, and I will take you down, Aomine Daiki, with or without my trustee bike! I WILL FUCKING RIP YOU TO SHREDS WITH MY ULTIMATE SPEED POWERS AND SHEER WILLPOWER, YA HEAR ME?!"

"Bring it on."

Someone told me that they challenged each other to sprint through all of the floors of the apartment building from the bottom to the highest level and back to the floor where I stayed.

I hadn't seen my other roommates, Kageyama and Imaizumi, so I decided to look for them instead. I went to their rooms, but none of them was there. I asked others if they happened to see either of them, but they hadn't seen the tall and black-haired duo around. I gave up—I probably could text them later, hoping that they didn't get too deep within the madness among these impractical maniacs. I got to the kitchen to quench my thirst for something in the fridge, until I found someone lying on the floor, susceptible as if he were poisoned. I jerked my body to the side to get a better look of him.

Wait, wasn't that…

"KAGEYAMA!"

I immediately approached him and crouched to his side, shaking his body violently as he tried to regain his senses. Carefully, I laid his body near me—his eyes went white as if he lost his pupils; his face was so pale that his skin began to feel cold. I grabbed his face closely to mine as I raised my voice, "Kageyama, speak to me! Who did this to you?!"

"… A-ah…"

His voice sounded choked and croaking, but I didn't get his message. I noticed the fingers on his right hand were lifted, trying to point at something. I followed the direction to where it tried to point at, to which I saw the table. Over there, I found a hotpot bowl which was empty; probably the contents had already been eaten by Kageyama. Then, he attempted to speak some words—if it weren't mistaken, I heard something similar to ‘food', ‘good', and ‘headache'. At least, I finally got the hint of what he was trying to tell me.

Wait a minute.

My mind was suddenly brought to déjà vu. I had experienced this before—everyone in my team had the same side effect after they tasted the cooking in the hotpot. I remembered clearly that night when everyone laid unconsciously at my old apartment and I could only gaze at the sight helplessly, like watching a horror movie. Unfortunately, I suffered the sudden horrid pain as well, after noticing the fruits and vegetables in the hotpot were also mixed with supplements in it. I remained senseless until the next morning.

My eyes widened in terror. This could be mean one thing.

"Ah, geez, where did I put the hotpot that I have prepared—ah, Kagami-kun!"

Shit.

"C-c-coach!" I stammered. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

Coach Riko raised her right eyebrow when she saw me on the floor with Kageyama, asking me suspiciously, "What are you doing here? I was about to give you my special hotpot that I have specially implemented just for you as my personal birthday present!" She sighed heavily as she folded her arms. "Somebody must have eaten it. Damn, I guess I should make you another one. Anyway, is that guy there okay? Did he drink too much?"

He didn't drink too much and no, he isn't okay because he was the one who ate the hotpot you made for me!

"U-uh… You don't have to make me the hotpot, Coach," I faltered. "I-I had already eaten something before I gotten my way here. I'm actually really full now, so no, thank you."

"Eeeeeh? But you gotta try some, at least!"

"I'll try some later next time! I'm sorry, Coach, I got to go!"

Quickly, I left the kitchen, leaving poor Kageyama alone with Coach who gazed at me in bewilderment. I averted my eyes and went back to the living room to look for Imaizumi. I didn't see him among Sohoku's seniors or with Onoda and Naruko. He wasn't around with any of the Seidou or Karasuno members either. At this time, he was the only roommate that I hadn't heard of him from the moment I stepped in. I didn't want someone to wind up nuts, attracting other parties who were fed up with the havoc, thus I would be the one to suffer the consequences. 

What a blast for a birthday.

"LOOK OUT!"

My instincts were immediately elevated in alert as I dodged a baseball which was sent flying only an inch from my face. From the other side, it was Furuya who pitched the fastball, which fortunately was caught by Miyuki who shifted swiftly from his position while smirking at him, "Good thing I was the one to catch this. If you break another one of the furniture here, I won't hesitate to have you pay for it." The pitcher curled his lips inwards, then he saw me who was standing and watched the scene and muttered an (insincere) apology before he left to seek something from Tsukishima.

He was one of the people I could never understand.

Getting out of the room was probably a good idea, as I needed some space and fresh air to breathe. Before I could do so, I was stopped by Karasuno's bright orange haired middle blocker, Hinata. He gleamed at me as his eyes sparked amazement as if he gazed at something amazing. I eyed at him carefully. "What do you want?" I asked him in a reluctant tone. "Kageyama's at the kitchen if you want to look for him."

"Ah, no, actually!" he chuckled lightly. "I was wondering if you could show me your highest jump you could do, since Kageyama told me that you're the highest jumper among all of the basketball players he has ever known, even among the Generation of Miracles! I'm very good at doing high jumps too, but it only works in volleyball games. I just want to see how high you can jump compared to the ‘Small Giant' so that I could actually learn how to jump from you and…"

Not this shit again.

"Sorry, Hinata," I cut him in the middle of the talk as my expression remained stiff. "You should see me play on the court if you had the chance. At that time, I could jump as high as I want, but not now."

Hinata pouted. "Aww, come oooon, Kagami-san!" he whined, imposing me all over. "Pretty please please please? I don't know if I could ever see you again since Kageyama wouldn't let me go to his place and this is the only chance where I get to meet you and—"

I didn't hear anything from the short guy anymore after I left the room.

I decided it was the time for me to contemplate about my life. I was so far overwhelmed when I got the chance to live with people like Miyuki, Kageyama, or Imaizumi—they stayed along with me for a reason (well, basically under Miyuki's intentions, but anyway). Then again, all of us who strived to be the best in each of our sports in the country had done efforts not for nothing. Basically, our presences to one another here were meant as a major support. I realized that after nearly a year I had left my old place. Maybe if I hadn't known them, I wouldn't be having over forty people here only to join the festive of celebrating me getting older by one year. I usually spent it along with Seirin—a trip to Maji Burger was enough for me. It was pleasant, but I guess having a crowd could be better than a company.

Probably, I should be a lot more grateful having more friends by now.

BUZZ. BUZZ.

Well, look at that. Someone happened to call. I checked on the phone screen to find out who was calling, and—

.

.

.

.

.

—holy shit.

"Imaizumi, where the hell are you?"

"I can't believe I'm calling you over to say this," his tone implied an inner panic within. "Kagami, are you outside?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Look up."

I did what he asked me to… and sweet mother of flying pigs and cows of the universe.

I didn't know what kind of devil who possessed him at that time, but I swore I saw Imaizumi, wrapped in a woman's coat, dangling by the balcony on the upper floor, looking suppressed and terrified as he tried not to look down. I restrained my urge to either scream in terror because my friend was in the verge of his death, jump off the balcony where I stood, or find other ways to kill myself at that moment. I was surprised nobody had noticed this before—I was somehow glad and worried of my decision of going out of the room just to know that one of my roommates ended up hanging by the edge of the floor as if it were a daredevil act.

I hate having bad omens at my birthday.

"Look, Kagami, I-I can explain!" he shouted from above, panicking. "I was almost attacked by the tiger which Miyuki brought and nearly got trapped behind the iron curtain because they wouldn't let me out for not kissing that blond basketball friend of yours over a dumb drinking game, and now I don't know how to go down!"

I would have killed Kise and Miyuki in an instant after I founded a way on how to rescue Imaizumi.

"BUT WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE TO GO SO FAR UP THERE?!" I angered. "YOU COULD HAVE KILLED YOURSELF, YOU IDIOT!"

"WELL, I'M SORRY IF I FOLLOWED THE HUMAN'S INSTINCTS TO SUR—!"

Suddenly, I saw Imaizumi's phone dropped as his grip started to loose. Pulled by gravity, it didn't take longer than ten seconds for the phone to crash itself to the ground and was broken into pieces. I stared at the broken pieces lying from fourteen stories below me, as my mind was usurped by images of how it was like to see a man falling from the fifteenth floor, as high as 152 feet from the ground. And just like the phone, there would be an ordeal—broken bones, great deal of losing a large amount of blood, and inevitably… death.

I had to do something—no, I would do anything.

"Look, just wait over there while I'm trying to get my head clear…" I spoke as I attempted to replenish my thoughts from doubts and worry. "I don't know, man, just don't look down. I'm gonna get some help pretty soon as long as you're not dead before it comes."

"Thanks for the advice, Kagami. I have been doing that for the past fifteen minutes while waiting for someone to help me out," he huffed sarcastically. "Anyway, do you have anyone there besides you?"

"Sadly, no."

"Damn."

I was supposed to be getting someone, anyone from the room to help me out but my body wouldn't move. I was frozen, as the air felt heavier and the noises became a lot more rambunctious than before. I wished for the time to turn back so I didn't have to face myself with this madness anymore. All I wanted was a normal celebration of a birthday party, not mingling myself among these potentially deranged people that I somewhat felt disparaged to call them my friends and acquaintances. God, I was scared shitless, everything started to not make sense.

… at least, not until Imaizumi called me from above.

"I finally got it!" he exclaimed. "I have figured out a plan for you to get me down here."

Bless the Lord.

After Imaizumi explained to me what to do, I went back inside to get a rope for starters. Gladly, I remembered where it was placed—the storage just right near above Kageyama's room. I grabbed the stairs and ascended before opening the door with caution. I could hear strange clicking sounds from there—I grabbed a flashlight near me, turned it on, and aimed it to the source of the sounds, only to see a certain pink-haired baseball player seeking something from the boxes.

"I'm gonna be killed, where should I look for it again..." he whispered warily to himself, "Aniki is going to finish me if I weren't able to return one of the balls he has hidden around the house... Why did I even agree to join this game?"

After I spotted a bundle of rope that I had been looking for, I grabbed it and quietly left him as I got down and put the stairs back to its place. I could have actually helped him with that, but I had more important matters to do. I scurried my way past the people, but on my way out I was stopped once again—this time, it was by one of Karasuno's seniors, Sugawara. He was smiling in front of me, but I knew deep down he was appalled because of something.

"Care to explain what happened to my junior who is now lying on the bed having nightmares over food poisoning?" he inquired menacingly as the aura around him turned darker. "I guess you should have known, since you're the one who lives with him for the past year. Were you planning to spike the punch for everyone here just because you're the birthday boy?"

"I-it wasn't my fault, Sugawara-san, I swear!" I frantically couldn't hold myself back as I tried to explain the situation. "Look, it's just a misunderstanding! See, someone happened to cook me a hotpot, but Kageyama accidentally finished it off, thinking that it was for him, so—"

"So you're saying this as an alibi to hide your wretched motives to harm him?"

Sometimes, people could never listen once they have lost their trust and stay tough to their perspectives.

"Pardon me, Sugawara-san. I have... no bad intentions or whatsoever towards Kageyama all this time," I attempted to state as firm as possible. "He is my roommate, so for what reason I could possibly want him harmed?" 

Suddenly, Kiyoshi arrived not far from where we were. Thank God, he just saved the day—he approached Sugawara from behind, adding, "Kagami's right. That cooking happened to be made by our coach—please, don't spread this too loud or too soon or she will kill us both—and Kagami himself hasn't had anything while he is around here." He pulled off one of his sincerest smile while slowly ushered the setter away from me, offering, "Why don't we have a talk? And by the way, Makishima-san has been looking for you."

"... If you say so."

Just when he walked past me, I could hear him threatened me in a low and disintegrated voice, "This is not over. I will get you soon." Then, he simply lifted a vague upward curve on his face, although I knew from the start that he was hiding his intentions to finish me off. Meanwhile, Kiyoshi glanced towards my direction and gave me a 'good luck' face before he went back hanging out with the long, green-haired cyclist who surprisingly got engaged in a nice conversation with Seidou's bearded senior.

Ever since Kageyama had been living with me, Miyuki, and Imaizumi, Sugawara condemned that it was a horrible idea, especially after the time when Miyuki took us for a road trip right before we all moved in to our place. (I will get to that someday if I happened to have the chance) I understood of his concerns as a senior, but he never really believed us after that. To this date, he was acrid and resentful when it comes to dealing with either of us. Actually, I figured out he came to the party by force, but he did it for God knows sake.

I went to the balcony and began to tie the rope by the handle bar and my waist tightly; assuring that it wouldn't break if I fell. Good thing, it was long enough, but I hope it could bear the doubled weight since I wouldn't be the only one at the edge. When it was all set, I shouted at him, "Are you ready?!"

"Okay, let's do the count!"

I could see Imaizumi loosened one of his hands carefully from the handles as the count began. Both of us slowly but sure chanted the numbers as I prepared my instincts to jump.

"One!"

The cyclist didn't hesitate to look down daringly this time—surprisingly, it didn't make him tremble by one bit. I couldn't imagine if it were me instead of him.

"Two!"

I gathered all of my courage and shunned my fears away. I prayed for luck and safety to the Lord, hoping that this birthday wouldn't cause more misery than it was supposed to be.

"Th—"

SWOOSH.

Before the last count was commenced, Imaizumi's hand slipped and the forces pulled him down as if he were a ragdoll. Luckily, my senses immediately took over and I executed the jump as fast as I could while quickly grabbing one of his hands. All of the sudden, I heard a snapping sound—something was broken.

Shit!

I was at around half of the height of the upper balcony when I realized that my feet were no longer on the ground. The rope, apparently, wasn't all that long and strong to hold me when I jumped. Having nothing to hold us, we could no longer retract the urge inside us from screaming as if it were the end of the world while gravity dragged us to our deaths.

"WE'RE GONNA DIIIIIEEEEEE!"

This is it. So long, my crazy beautiful life.

.

.

.

I closed my eyes tight as Imaizumi and I held on to each other closely, waiting for the Shachath's appearance to give us the kiss of death. Then again, I felt like somebody caught my hand and slowly pulled me up. When I was finally able to feel the floor of the balcony, I exhaled gladly and opened my eyes—right in front of me, stood a pink-haired man who looked at me in a disenchanted manner. Though, I recalled that he was different from the one that I had seen in the storage before. He must have been the older brother. Right behind him, there were two taller guys—one with a bald head and a stiff look, and the other with quite a muscular built. They must have helped him to catch me and Imaizumi from falling down, since I figured that he wouldn’t be doing it all by himself.

"Are you planning to commit suicide with your friend on your birthday?" he chaffed. "I could have let you do so, but it would be against my empathy as a human who treasures his life meaningfully."

I was stunned. Both of us stammered a "thank you" to him, to which he replied, "Don't thank me. Tell that to my little brother who happened to know where you were after he managed to find something for me." After that, he and his two friends returned to blend themselves again among the crowd, leaving us perplexed. Imaizumi and I gave a questioning look to each other—we didn't know what was going to happen next.

Well, until Kise and Nishinoya approached when they saw us outside.

"Kagamicchi! What are you doing down there?" The blonde’s expression was filled with worry and confusion. "Noya-kun and I had been looking everywhere for you since Miyukicchi told me that the ice statue will be arrived here at five minutes from now and—IMAIZUMI-KUN!"

When Kise called his name, Imaizumi's pupils dilated. Seeing this, Noya grinned, remarking, "Ohh, the end of the game is going to be nasty." I didn't get the situation happening even though Imaizumi sent me a desperate look likewise an SOS signal, hoping that I could somehow help him. I was stunned to the point that I had no idea until Kise crouched and leaned forward to him, who kept frantically yelling, "GET OFF OF ME! THE GAME IS OVER!" as he retreated...

... But unfortunately, it was too late.

Kise grabbed Imaizumi's jaws and pulled it by force as he immediately kissed him. It wasn't just that chaste kind of kiss where it went slow and careful—it was inevitable that Kise used a lot of tongue. Nishinoya wasn't bothered by the sight at all—he, in fact, enjoyed it. Then again, it wasn't only he and I who watched the scene—Naruko accidentally saw the kiss and fainted, until he was caught by Onoda who looked so clueless. Kuroko grabbed his phone from his pocket and took a picture of it, while the rest who watched were whooping, cheering, and doing wolf whistles. When the kiss was ended, Kise smiled as he playfully said, "Now, the game is finally over," much to Imaizumi's abundant amount of agitation.

I could hear Hinata yelped in excitement—he must have seen me jumped, as he expressed his astonishment in exuberance. "OH, MY GOD, THAT IS SO COOL! DO IT AGAIN, DO IT AGAIN!" Meanwhile, Imaizumi quickly got up by his feet and ran away—probably going to his room because he was too overwhelmed over everything happened. (I was about to ask him where he got the woman's coat from, but looking at the tears at the corner of his eyes made me cancel my decision.)

Speaking of which, I hadn't seen Miyuki and the tiger anywhere after he caught the fastball. I hoped that the beast didn't scamper and wrecked everything, but anyway, he was under Miyuki's control. I had no idea if I should be glad or worried that he was the one who handled the tiger because; one, we're talking about Miyuki Kazuya, whose known close companion involved Kuramochi Youichi, Seidou’s resident former yankee and master prankster (as I was told by Miyuki one time), and both of them would make a very good Japanese baseball player version of Edgar and Ellen. Two, despite having the tiger named after me, apparently it only obeyed to him. Three, God knows what happened if there were a chance that he might have lost the tiger.

The ice statue had finally arrived—I wasn't expecting anything glorious at all. The statue was actually a tiger, resembling Taiga #2. Somehow, I was glad that someone didn't request a statue of me in a pose likely similar to that of the Ancient Greek ones. I didn't know where it would be put, though.

"Psst. Hey, Kagami!"

Weird. I thought I heard somebody called me.

I swept my eyes to the surroundings, but nobody seemed to look like they wanted to talk to me. I decided to ignore it, anyway—maybe it was just my own feeling. Suddenly, I felt a firm tap on the back and I turned, finding out that one of the people covered in uniform who brought the ice statue was...

"Takao?"

"Happy birthday, man!" he congratulated me while keeping his voice low. "Have you seen Shin-chan anywhere? Isn't he supposed to be invited over to your party?"

As far as I recalled of where Midorima was, I saw him chattering with another of Seidou's pitcher while showing him a handful of seaweed, his lucky item of the day. That was around an hour ago.

"No, why?"

"Y'see, I brought some... uninvited company or 'gatecrashers' as we commonly known in general," Takao explained. "Do you happen to know somebody named Makishima? My friend, Toudou, here wants to see him. Oh, by the way, Kasamatsu-san is looking for Kise as well, since he got bailed out because Kise's over coming to your birthday. Am I right?"

"Eh?"

"Ah, so you're the birthday boy!" The said shoulder-length haired male in the bandanas greeted me, also covered in uniform similar to Takao. "Have you seen Maki-chan around here? I can't believe he didn't tell me that he was going to be here! And gosh, look at all of these people; what is this, the backstage party of an award show? I swear to God, this is outrageous..."

When I averted my eyes back to the place where Makishima stood, I could see him frowning before he carefully moved himself away as he realized that Toudou was undercover and looking for him. When he noticed me, he gestured his fingers in a zipping movement near his lips, implying that I should keep quiet over his presence. I nodded quietly as I pretended not to acknowledge where he was until I couldn't see him anymore.

Meanwhile, Kasamatsu searched carefully for the sight of his underclassman, ignoring me who had been looking at him for a while. “God, where is that little shit? What the hell is he up to now?” he grunted. “He didn’t do anything stupid, did he?”

“As much as I concerned so far, nothing out of bounds.”

Unless French-kissing my roommate who just escaped his way from death with me because of him is considered as stupid, then yes, he did something imbecilic.

“Ah, man, I’m so jealous! How come you didn’t invite me to your party?” asked Toudou. “It’s not like Sohoku really knows you, anyway, so that means it should be okay for me to come here seeing my friend, right?”

"Tell that to my catcher roommate in the glasses," I said, half-wondering where he might be at the moment. I had a hunch that there would be something bad arriving sooner than I thought, but I didn’t know what it was just yet. "He's the one who arranged this disturbing testosteronopia of a birthday celebration. I might be getting me a fraternity-like alliance soon enough thanks to him."

"You mean that guy?"

As Takao pointed his fingers over to someone, his face changed into a mix of perplexity and fear since not only did he notice Miyuki, but also Taiga #2…

"Oh, my God, he has a fucking TIGER?!"

.

.

.

… without the leash being hold, which instantly lunged towards the ice statue.

Takao and Toudou reflexively leaped away from the statue before Taiga #2 assaulted it and left it that way when its front legs and some parts of its head were broken. I didn’t know what turned him that way—he kept running away quickly and was fortunately out of the room. Meanwhile, Miyuki attempted to get ahold of its leash again as he followed the agile beast from behind. Some of the people started to muster outside to see what happened, and all I could do was watching. I had no intention in helping Miyuki getting Taiga back at all—technically, he was the one who had been taking care of it all along, not me. I held back the urge to laugh when I saw him chasing Taiga as he called its name several times.

"Taiga! Come back here!"

I sighed as I returned inside, going back to the kitchen to see if there was anything left there. Luckily, I didn't find anyone pass out like the last time, though I didn't get to have anything from the fridge. I was starting to get hungry, so I decided to look for some food somewhere else besides there as I wondered why no one wanted to end the whoop-de-doo-were they even planning to do this all night?

ZAP.

Maybe not.

"WHO TURNED OFF THE LIGHTS?!"

"How are we supposed to continue the party now?"

"It's so fucking hot in here."

"I hope the tiger won't come back here and eat us all…"

"MAKI-CHAAAN, WHERE ARE YOU? IT'S SO DARK IN HERE!"

Splendid. 

The lights were off and I had no idea what to do at that time. Probably, I should just stay hungry until the next day—at least having breakfast wouldn't be so bad since I could cook them myself if Miyuki wouldn't be able to come back by dawn prior to play tag with Taiga. I left the flashlight in the storage room and for a moment, I lost the direction to my own room. 

CLANG.

"COULD YOU STOP BREAKING THINGS, FURUYA? MIYUKI WILL DEFINITELY KILL US IF HE FINDS OUT!"

"Whatever. It was an accident, anyway."

.

.

.

Wait, where was I? Oh, right.

I was hungry and I lost the direction to my room. Everyone began to complain, making the party end sooner than I thought. If there were completely nobody there, I would have let out an exhausted but glad "BLESS YOU JESUS CHRIST" for granting my wish—I didn't need a lot of people to spend their time messing here until night. Then again, I was tired and people were still there, so yeah.

"OWWW!"

I was about to discreetly pump my fist until someone threw something at my back. I groaned and I immediately turned to the direction where that thing hit me as I yelled particularly to nobody, "Hey, watch where you're throwing, you stupid—"

BLAM.

As I retreated, I hit my head somewhere near something. I dropped myself to the floor with a nice loud thud—after that, people started to shout at one another; asking somebody who just said that, telling everyone that someone passed out, or just mere growling and muttering. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to state anything about it, moreover trying to get up. The voices began to sound indistinct as I slowly lost my consciousness. My heartbeat was no longer rapid, my eyes were weary and dozed off, and I…

… had no idea of whatever happened at the next six hours.

.x.

The next day, I was already on top of my bed, covered in sheets after the dawn arrived.

I yawned and squirmed, and then I crawled to the floor before I stood and did some stretching. It was time for me to get myself a breakfast since I hadn't had a proper meal last night. Well, speaking of last night, it seemed that things had been returned to the usual—it startled me a little, but I was relieved that I didn't have to do all of the work. It had been more than six hours after I passed out and everyone was still at dispute from the last time I recalled the situation there.

"Did you get a good sleep?"

I was welcomed by Miyuki's voice, sounding very tired but I could perceive him trying to act relaxed. He was already at the kitchen to prepare the breakfast. I rubbed my eyes and yawned loudly once again, replying in irritation, "Yeah, well, I passed out because someone threw shit from behind and made me hit my head. Before that, Kageyama got poisoned over a hotpot and Imaizumi was nearly falling from fifteen stories because of that stupid tiger you brought. Hell, I sure had a fantastic slumber last night."

"Why do you have to be so mean to Taiga? It was difficult to get him, you know," Miyuki frowned. "You really don't like him, do you?"

If I had to be honest, I wasn't fond to the tiger at all, but I wasn't all that scared either. I just didn't like it—God, who the fuck did Miyuki think he was? Getting a tiger and naming it after me, bringing four sports teams who almost tore this place apart, and trying to look rad by acclaiming to throw the best party I could have ever imagined. I wish I had the chance to blame him a lot for yesterday… but somehow, I just couldn't. Especially after I noticed that he was responsible enough to clean up all the mess like nothing had happened.

"Well, at least having a tiger is better than a dog," I remarked, to which Miyuki laughed lightly. Out of nowhere, a smile popped in my face—strangely enough, I didn't restrain it. "Anyway, where is Taiga?" I asked.

"I returned him to his owner. It was all worth the pay to rent him for a night—I’m telling you, it cost me a lot," Miyuki explained. "It was fun having him around, but I guess it would be too hectic for us to keep him here, as much as I wanted to. Also, you can visit him anytime you want, and I could give you the owner’s place to see him there. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't bite much—he's actually very shy, just like you at first, right?"

Hearing that, I instantly shifted my face away from him to hide my blush. The catcher couldn't help but grin. I decided to sit beside him on the couch after he finished preparing the meal. He held a warm glass of coffee while offering one to me, which I accepted as I murmured ‘thanks' quietly. He leaned closer to me—something which I would never expect to happen at all—as he mumbled, "Last night was exhausting but terrific. Did you think I nail it?"

"Close enough," I breathed out a chuckle. "I feel like one of those guys in Jackass or Greek, so you pretty much did a good job in bringing the turbulence of disarray."

"I'm very flattered."

Both of us enjoyed the silence for a while as the sun rose higher. For the first time, I didn't really mind having Miyuki right beside me, even if he could be such an annoying prick sometimes. Oddly, I was calm about what everything happened, as if all of the rage which had been bundling up inside me evaporated away and all that was left was comfort in the next day. As he laid his head by my shoulder, he said, "I'm sorry, but you have to let me do this. I was cracked up last night and all I wanted was to have a nice and indulgent company after the chaos ensued. Now, here you are and I couldn't miss it—you can hit me later if I'm done."

For some reason, I didn't want him to move away from me either.

"Okay."

Kageyama then arrived, whose facial expression looked very ruined. He glared towards Miyuki at first whilst pointing at him and uttered these short sentences, "No more tigers. No more hotpots. No more crowds. And especially… no more parties." Miyuki only laughed as a response, as Kageyama indignantly huffed.

Poor guy, I thought to myself about him as Kageyama walked himself to the kitchen to grab something to drink. He must have been so worn off after passing out for hours since the time he ate Coach's hotpot. (I realized that the effect was much more hazardous than the last one she had made.)

I brushed my hair to the side and glanced at Miyuki, whose eyes were closed underneath his glasses. He didn't force himself to sleep, but he looked so peaceful. The sight of him that way somehow sent a blissful feeling inside of me instead of making me shudder in discomfort. He had been living with me for long enough, so why should I mind? It wasn't as if we were more than just roommates anyway.

… Fuck, what was I thinking?

"Dear God."

Soon enough, Imaizumi was the one to wake up at last. He rubbed his neck as he exhaled deeply, mumbling to himself, "What happened last night… What did I do?" I could see that he wasn't lying at all—he did forget whatever had happened. He asked to all of us in a confused tone about what he had done the night before. Even though I would like to explain the chronology of what had occurred in the balcony, I suppressed the urge to do so. Kageyama didn't (want to) know (again) and had no intention in telling Imaizumi either, while Miyuki fluttered his eyes open and, being a teasing asshole as he usually was, smirked as he spoke meaningfully, "Somebody saved your life yesterday."

Imaizumi's reaction to it was a raise on his eyebrows of bemusement.

After that, all of us gathered to the dining room to have a breakfast. Luckily for Kageyama, it wasn't a hotpot—nevertheless; he had been losing a great deal amount of appetite. Everything was going normal, until I grabbed today's edition of our subscribed paper after I finished eating. When I laid my eyes on the headline, I was stupefied.

LOCAL CITIZENS REPORTED SIGHTINGS OF A TIGER ON THE LOOSE

"Hey, how did that happen?"

Quickly, I threw the paper away before Imaizumi got more curious. I didn't want to cause a traumatic turbulence to him if I pertained of the happenings in our apartment. Seeing this, Miyuki whistled while pretending to not acknowledge anything, as I glued my eyes at him in a disapproving gaze. Kageyama stared at us both in disbelief while repeatedly munching the crackers from the gap of his teeth loudly as he muttered, "All of you are shitheads."

Let's just hope that somebody wouldn't turn on the television or go out to look for some news from certain involved acquaintances for the rest of the day.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this two years ago, with few edits here and there. I don't know what brought me to wrote this aside of the fact that the roommates are my four favorite characters. I deserve eggs and tomatoes in my face for this.
> 
> By the way, Miyuki got the tiger from Himuro who happened to have an acquaintance who owned exotic animals for rent.
> 
> P.S. Happy belated birthday, Kagami.


End file.
